By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Belting out her blues to a packed downtown Friday night, Samantha Fish had no problem filling the bigger venue with her powerful voice and her faithful fans.
Shortly after she took the stage at this year’s Black Swamp Arts Festival, the skies started spitting a little rain. Last year, she and her band took refuge from heavy rains in Howard’s Club H, where they put on a big show for the smaller crowd.
But this year, the drizzles weren’t about to drown her out. Fish took charge and banished any bad weather.
“Rain, rain, go away,” she said.
Sitting in the front row was a fan who came armed with an umbrella – and dressed in a shirt with a photo of Fish taken at her New Year’s Eve concert in St. Louis.
Leslie Richardson, from Michigan City, Indiana, said she had seen Fish in concert 54 times since 2013.
“It’s basically her emotion when she plays,” Richardson said, trying to describe her love for Fish’s music. “The way she loves her fans – you get a good feeling listening to her. She’s very generous.”
Standing up in front of the stage was a newer – but devoted fan, Daniel Gill, of Portage.
“She’s got amazing fret work, a voice like smoked bourbon, and the fact that she looks like Marilyn Monroe doesn’t hurt,” Gill said.
Hanging out by a front speaker was Will Graf, of Wayne.
“I grew up around music,” Graf said, explaining his reason for wanting to be close to the performances. “Nothing else matters except the music and hanging out.”
But on this Friday night, the weather also mattered. Last year’s Black Swamp Arts Festival was drenched by downpours – finally closing the main stage all together on Sunday.
So when the sprinkles started Friday night, some people had flashbacks to 2018. But Graf looked at the sky and confidently predicted a dry night.
“It does this every year,” he said nonchalantly. “It’s gonna blow over.”
Music lovers, denied their fill last year, packed the festival this Friday night.
“Last year it was so rainy and cold,” said Linda Logue, of Bowling Green, as she sat at her volunteer post making sure no one left the beer garden area with alcoholic beverages.
Though Logue’s chair had an umbrella attached, this year it remained closed – and she was happy to have a seat in the front of the concert venue.
“That’s why I want to be up here, and not back there,” she said, pointing to volunteers posted further from the stage. “I’d be down here anyway.”
In between bands, Steve Atkinson, of Toledo, said the diversity and mixture of talent draws him to the festival each year. This year, he was especially looking forward to hearing the last band of the night, The War and Treaty.
“They’re amazing,” he said. “They are going to blow this place up.”
Atkinson’s prediction was right on. As soon as the rhythm and blues couple, Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Blount, took the stage, people were back and their feet and finding it difficult to stand still.
“This is the first time I’m hearing them sing – but they are phenomenal,” said Milli Corey, of Michigan. “She has a powerful voice.”
With Trotter on the keyboards and Blount on tamborine, their voices seemed as if they could fill the city block even if they shed their microphones.
“These guys are rockin’,” said Andy Geiermann, of Toledo.
Leroy Brown, of Monroeville, and Alex Jackson, of California, didn’t arrive to the festival as fans of The War and Treaty.
“But now we are,” Brown said, loving the horn and saxophone. “They are entertainers. They’re engaged with the audience.”
On some numbers, the crowd was bouncing and singing back. And on more soulful numbers, Trotter and Blount serenaded each other and then wooed their audience.
“We want to give you 1 million percent of what we’ve got,” Trotter said.
And the band wanted to give Bowling Green a show “that represents America.” That doesn’t mean a show for the white race or black race, but for the human race, Trotter said.
For those in the audience who disagreed, “I think you’re at the wrong festival,” Trotter said.
